I finished the hats in time. The girl one with the cabled brim and the alternating knit/purl sections for a slouch effect can be turned inside out and the brim folded up so that it can fit the baby as she grows, with the cable right-side-out either way.

I also gave the moms a package of mesh laundry bags in multiple sizes: I told them that once when we were at the baby stage, our washing machine totally backed up. Richard took it apart, and jammed down inside the hose were baby booties, nursing pads, all sorts of very small things that had flown out the top of the tub in the spin cycle, enough all at once this time to finally show why things were disappearing.Â Zip them in those bags, though, and they’ll be safe.

Took me three stores to find those. OSH hardware saves the day!

For fun, by the way, if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t miss the tree that became the paper in a book that became a bonsai tree. Can’t you just picture Snoopy riding it like a surfboard? Cowabonzai!

I LOVED that story, and the mystery, which is odd, because real-life mysteries are generally very annoying; for example, how did my cell phone get from the pocket in my handbag to the cupboard in the nightstand? And WHY?!

I probably should use one of those bags…we lose more things to the laundry gods around here.

I hadn’t heard of the book sculptures. They’re beautiful, and all I could think was how much fun it must be for the artist to sneak in and leave one behind. A little mystery often makes giving all the more enjoyable.